Oil Companies Lose Fullerton Cleanup Case

Oil companies must pay for nearly all of the $100-million cleanup of the McColl site in Fullerton, which was used as a toxic dump during World Word II, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The ruling reverses a lower court’s decision that held the U.S. government responsible for the cleanup of the 22-acre site. The cleanup was declared a high priority shortly after the federal Superfund cleanup law was enacted in 1980. The oil companies manufacturing aviation fuel for the war dumped more than 100,000 cubic yards of toxic byproducts on the site during the 1940s. Cleanup was completed in 1998.

Atlantic Richfield Co., Shell Oil Co., Texaco Inc. and Union Oil Co. of California argued that the federal government should pay for the cleanup because of its role in urging gasoline production during World War II. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the oil companies were responsible for the dumping.

A Decision to Pursue Further Appeal Pending

“I think [the decision] was wrong,” said Peter Taft, a Los Angeles attorney representing the oil companies. “They did not give adequate consideration to the [federal government’s] coercion on the companies to produce and therefore [force] them to dump under the wartime situation.”

He said the companies, which already paid for most of the cleanup, have not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.

Attempts to reach U.S. Department of Justice attorneys familiar with the case were unsuccessful. However, lawyers for the state of California and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were pleased with the ruling on the 11-year-old case.

People across the country knew about the hazardous pollution at the site. Oily, acidic sludge--a byproduct of manufacturing jet fuel--was dumped into pits at the McColl site. Homeowners began complaining about odors and health problems after a neighborhood was built nearby in the 1970s.

“Six of the 12 sludge pits were open and the other six were underneath a golf course. Sludge would ooze up out of the earth during the hot summer months,” said Timothy Patterson, a deputy attorney general representing the state of California.

Testing found sulfuric acid, benzene and other harmful substances. The site was declared a federal Superfund site in 1983.

After years of debate, oil officials, local activists and federal officials agreed on a solution: The pits were covered and topped by a multilayered cap. A gas-collection system and groundwater equipment were installed to monitor the site.

The property became three holes of the Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park. Although the oil companies paid for most of the cleanup, they still were battling the 1991 lawsuit brought by the government against them.

“This is really is one of the Superfund success stories in terms of cleanup,” Patterson said.

However, one neighbor who helped with the cleanup said it never would have happened without the oil companies’ cooperation, and that they shouldn’t be held responsible for what the federal government forced them to do decades ago.

“Whether you like the oil companies or not, they were ordered by the government to do something,” said David Bushey, who has lived for 24 years at a Fairgreen Drive home that abuts the McColl site.

“Had they not, their officers would have been arrested and thrown in jail for war crimes or something. They did their duty.

“To throw it all back on them is really a shame. The fact is they stepped up to [the] plate and went ahead and put their money up to do the cleanup. Justice wasn’t done.”